I know sifting through the piles of new books can be a challenge. How uncracked volumes do you have sitting on your shelf just waiting for you? I can see at least 4 calling to me on my desk.
Here's a quick shortcut--these two books are worth your time.
An old high school friend, Brendan Halpin, just released his latest book Long Way Back.
Booklist said, "In his new novel (following Donorboy, 2004), devout Catholic and hard-core Ramones fan Francis suffers the ultimate loss when his loving, supersmart wife is felled by a brain aneurysm. The story of his healing, which takes many surprising turns, is told in the funny, sympathetic voice of his sister, Clare. For a devastated Francis, onetime church youth-group leader, the road to recovery starts with a bass guitar and eventually includes a tattoo and membership in a gay punk band whose most popular song is dedicated to describing the allure of Astroglide lubricant."
Halpin also has a clever piece about the soundtrack he hears in his head in the April issue of BestLife. Snag it at a newsstand near you.
If insightful, self deprecating personal essays are more your speed, pick up a copy of Kathy Y. Wilson's new Your Negro Tour Guide: Truths in Black and White. Wilson is an award-winning writer and weekly columnist for CityBeat, a rable rousing alternative newsweekly based in Cincinnati, Ohio (my hometown). In fact, I also wrote a column for CityBeat for about five years. Since first reading her work, I always admired and enjoyed Wilson's frank, in-your-face writing style.
Publisher's Weekly wrote, "Wilson, a newspaper columnist and commentator for NPR, slices into the reader’s consciousness with sharp, staccato sentences in short, vivid essays that speak for the marginalized-mainly blacks, but also women, the working class and homosexuals. As a "Lone Other," a black lesbian who dropped out of college, Wilson has borne a threefold stigma, and her self-perception as an outsider was a key influence on her career as a journalist."
If you are inspired to purchase either or both books, use the links on the left-hand side of the page.
